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Behnaz Fattahi...17/01/1392...weblog
Weblog A blog(weblog)' '''is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited. Blog'' can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users. (Previously, a knowledge of such technologies as HTML and FTP had been required to publish content on the Web.) Majority of weblogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via GUI widgets on the blogs, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking. Indeed, bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. There are high-readership blogs which do not allow comments, such as Daring Fireball. Blogs are comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated every day (if not three or four times a day). Blogs engage readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and to respond. They demand interaction. Generally blogs can: • promote critical and analytical thinking; • be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking; • promote analogical thinking; • be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information; • combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction (Eide Neurolearning Blog, 2005) Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries; others function more as online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important contribution to the popularity of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blogs), photographs (photoblogs), videos (video blogs or "vlogs"), music (MP3 blogs), and audio (podcasts). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources. These blogs are referred to as edublogs. WEBLOGS IN SCHOOLS Adopters of Weblogs in the classroom have already created a wide variety of ways to use them, and they have shown that blogs can enhance and deepen learning. Weblogs can be used as a building block for a school Web site. A major complaint about school Web sites is that few of them are updated on a regular basis. That's an easy fix with a Weblog site. Imagine if each department had its own blog that it could maintain as needed. Imagine if all the clubs and activities, all the sports teams, and all the student government bodies had their own sites that they could update. The overall school site would move from a static, wait-for-the-Webmaster-to-update-it type site to a dynamic, every-day-there's-something-new type site. Collaborative Space One of the biggest potentials of Weblogs is the ability to create spaces where students can collaborate with others online. Although collaborative learning has been a buzzword in American education for some time now, the Read/Write Web opens up all sorts of new possibilities for students to learn from each other or from authors or scientists and other professionals who can now work side by side in digital space even though they may be far away from one another physically. THE PEDAGOGY OF WEBLOGS What exactly can Weblogs do to improve student learning? First, Weblogs are truly a constructivist tool for learning. Because the content that students and teachers create is on the World Wide Web, it is content that becomes a part of the wider body of knowledge that the Internet represents. It is searchable; people can find it and use it. ' ' Second, Weblogs truly expand the walls of the classroom. We can create sites where classes from disparate geographies can conduct all sorts of experiments; share the results through text, picture, audio, or video; and invite expert scientists into the process to reflect on the results. Third, blogs archive the learning that teachers and students do, facilitating all sorts of reflection and metacognitive analysis that was previously much more cumbersome. Fourth, the Weblog is a democratic tool that supports different learning styles. For those students who might be more reticent in class, a blog gives them the opportunity to share in writing the ideas they may be too shy to speak. Fifth, the use of Web logs can enhance the development of expertise in a particular subject. Students who blog in educational settings usually focus their reading and writing on one topic, which helps bring about topic-specific expertise. A student who uses a blog to track stories and reflections on the genocide in Darfur, for example, is creating a database oflearning that she can continue to build on. Finally, blogs can teach students the new literacies they will need to function in an ever-expanding information society. Blogs have opened up the Read/Write frontier for content creation to the Web, and over 1 80 million people have now taken advantage of the opportunity. Remember, two new blogs are being created every second, and that pace shows no sign of slowing down. Now, that doesn't mean that everyone who creates a blog becomes a dedicated blogger; two-thirds of all blogs go for more than two months without being updated. There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written. Personal blogs The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life, or works of art. Some sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family, and are much faster than emailing or writing. Microblogging Microblogging is the practice of posting small pieces of digital content—which could be text, pictures, links, short videos, or other media—on the Internet. Corporate and organizational blogs A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names; typical use is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member activities. By genre Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, health blogs, travel blogs (also known as travelogs), gardening blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, classical music blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dream logs. Two common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. By media type A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs. By device Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. Reverse blog A Reverse Blog is composed by its users rather than a single blogger. This system has the characteristics of a blog, and the writing of several authors. These can be written by several contributing authors on a topic, or opened up for anyone to write. ' ' Reference''': '''Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by ’’’ Will Richardson’’’